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Supreme Court refers Kukrail Night Safari to Central Empowered Committee for clearance
The Supreme Court has asked the Central Empowered Committee to examine the project and submit the report within four weeks
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The Supreme Court has referred the Kukrail Night Safari project in Lucknow to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for clearance. The top court has asked the CEC to examine the project and submit the report within four weeks.
A three-member bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Justice NV Anjaria and Justice Alok Aradhe passed the order on Friday (August 29). The order was uploaded on the court’s website on Saturday.
The apex court directed the state government to furnish an application to the member secretary, CEC. The court has listed the case for the next hearing on October 8. Set up in 2002 following Supreme Court orders and reconstituted in 2008, the CEC is a specialised body to assist in environmental issues.
The UP government filed an impleadment application in the Supreme Court on April 8, seeking permission to establish the safari and relocate the Lucknow zoo to the Kukrail forest area.
Lucknow-based social activist Alok Singh, who is also a party in this case and a similar case before the National Green Tribunal, has stated that the night safari will adversely affect the reserve forest and cause irreversible damage to its natural ecosystem, resulting in the felling of thousands of dense trees and impacting climate change.
Earlier, the Kukrail Night Safari project got stuck due to the apex court’s February 19, 2024 order restraining the central and state governments across the country from establishing zoos and safaris in forest areas (other than protected areas) without approval of the top court. This order was passed by a three-judge bench headed by the then CJI Justice Dhananjay Y Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra.
A detailed project report (DPR) of the night safari, proposed on a 900-acre maple leaf design in the 2027.46-hectare Kukrail forest, was presented before chief minister Yogi Adityanath on November 19, 2024, roughly two years after its digital survey in December 2022.
When launched, it will be the world’s fifth night safari. The project has got in-principle approval from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) that is reviewing the DPR. The Kukrail Night Safari and Lucknow Zoo project of the Yogi Adityanath government is under Supreme Court scanner due to a 2023 petition filed by a group of ex-Indian Forest Service Officers.
The petitioners have challenged the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 alleging that it dilutes the definition of ‘forest’ as defined by the Supreme Court in its 1996 judgment in TN Godavarman v. Union of India case. After hearing the case, the Supreme Court on February 19, 2024, passed an interim order, directing states and Union Territories that any proposal for the establishment of zoos and safaris referred to in the Wild Life Protection Act 1972 will not be finally approved except with prior approval of the court.
